Antioxidant effect of resveratrol in the treatment of vascular dementia

Resveratrol, a polyphenolic compound, is synthesized in several plants and possesses beneficial biological effects, which include anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic properties. Resveratrol exhibits neuroprotective effects in models of many diseases, such as cerebral ischemia, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. However, there is a lack of data evaluating the effect of resveratrol in vascular dementia. Dr Boai Zhang and team from the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhengzhou University found that resveratrol improved learning and memory ability in vascular dementia rats, decreased malonyldialdehyde levels, and increased superoxide dismutase activity and glutathione levels in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex of vascular dementia rats. Their results, published in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 8, No. 22, 2013), demonstrate that resveratrol improves learning and memory ability, reduce oxidative stress following vascular dementia in rats, and provide an experimental basis and theoretical evidence for the clinical use of resveratrol in the treatment of vascular dementia.